The invention relates to a port for a catheter according to the preamble of claim 1.
A port of this type includes a chamber for receiving a medically active substance, a connecting piece for connecting a catheter in order to produce a flow connection between the chamber and the catheter, and at least one lever which is mounted so as to be pivotable about a pivot axis of the housing. The at least one lever is realized to allow the catheter to be fitted onto the connecting piece in a first pivot position and to hold the catheter in a clamping manner on the connecting piece in a second pivot position.
A port of this type, such as is known from EP 1 675 641 B1, can be implanted in a patient by being inserted, for example, under the skin of a patient (subcutaneously) and fastened there. The port then serves for infusing medical drugs, blood products, nutrients and other medically active substances into the venous or arterial system of a patient. By means of the port, an active substance can be administered to a patient in particular in a repeated manner over a fairly long period. Because the port, in this case, is able to be fully implanted under the skin of a patient, the risk of infection is reduced, and active substances can be administered over a fairly long period in a targeted manner for treating a patient without the patient having to be received in a stationary manner into a hospital for this purpose and without the port obstructing the patient considerably in his everyday life.
In the case of an infusion, an active substance is diverted from the chamber contained in the housing via a catheter which is connected to the connecting piece of the port and is supplied to the patient, for example to the venous or arterial system of the patient. The catheter, in this connection, is implanted together with the port in the patient and is placed in such a manner that the active substance is transported to a predetermined site in the patient.
In the case of such a port, care must be taken to ensure that the catheter which is fitted onto the connecting piece cannot slip from the connecting piece when the port is implanted and consequently become detached from the port. To this end, the port described in EP 1 675 641 B1 comprises clamping jaws which stand away from the housing of the port in a first position and, for holding the catheter in a clamping manner on the housing, can be transferred into a second position in which they receive the catheter between them in a clamping manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,948 discloses a port where a catheter can be connected to a connecting piece of the port by means of a sleeve. The sleeve consists of two parts which are connected together by means of a film hinge and, for connecting the catheter to the connecting piece in a positive locking manner, enclose the connecting piece in a closed position of the sleeve.
There is a need for a port which makes it easy to fit a catheter onto a connecting piece and which can provide a reliable hold between the catheter and the connecting piece in a simple and easy to handle manner. In this case, it must be taken into consideration that the handling of such a port can frequently be made more difficult as a result of a user, for example a doctor during an operation, often wearing gloves such that the handling should be correspondingly simple and possible without any great expenditure of effort.